# Dialogue-centric films **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 13, 2006, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialogue-centric-films/356581 "2006-05-13T01:54:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialogue-centric-films/356581/21 "2006-05-16T02:44:42Z")
Hitchcock lurched into the front of the “one-room lockdown” list by changing the rules of the lockdown. All others on the list are dialogue films (many of which have been listed here), whereas _Rear Window_ was balanced leaning towards visual. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialogue-centric-films/356581/22 "2006-05-16T02:47:03Z")
I just saw [The Four Seasons](The Four Seasons ) last night for the first time in years. This movie was very much a Dialogue-centric films. It was strange watching it though. Jack Weston’s character **Danny Zimmer** is the proto George Constanza. The other weird part was the morose daughter looked like the inspiration for [Daria](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118298/). Jim ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialogue-centric-films/356581/23 "2006-05-16T03:18:20Z")
[QUOTE=Rodgers01] I have to respectfully disagree on this one. Rear Window is one of my favorite movies of all time, and Hitchcock was working with one of his best screenwriters, ([John Michael Hayes](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0571199909/qid=1147742608/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-5078386-8716012?s=books&v=glance&n=283155)), who definitely wrote a great screenplay with some memorable dialogue (particularly the banter between Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly). But it’s not really a dialogue-centric movie. I think Hitchcock was mostly a visual director (which isn’t completely redundant – Kevin Smith is a dialogue director, if that makes sense), and Rear Window in particular is about the watching and being watched, rather than what’s being said. He could have made it a silent movie without losing too much of the movie’s power – and maybe it would have made it an even _better_ movie. [/QUOTE] I see your point, and have to withdraw it from competition as a strictly dialog-centric film, but I’d like to point out that while the voyeristic theme is played out visually, there are a lot of great scenes which would be lost without dialog; particularly Thelma Ritter’s biting commentary. Still, as you aptly discuss, Hitchcock uses visual effects to great, er, effect. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialogue-centric-films/356581/24 "2006-05-16T12:49:39Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] TI think of them as “the children of Woody Allen,” since I think Allen is the original master of this kind of film. His characters tend to be bright, articulate people who endlessly analyze their relationships and themselves. They often don’t solve anything with their conversations but just talk their problems to death. The newer director/writers who work this way are Richard Linklater, Whit Stillman, Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino, and Spike Lee. Although I don’t know his films very well, I understand that Noah Baumbach makes similar sorts of movies. [/QUOTE] Preston Sturges did it even before Allen, but he also had a lot of slapstick in his films, which makes them less dialog-centric. Still the dialog in Sturges films is a marvel to behold. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialogue-centric-films/356581/25 "2006-05-16T12:51:51Z")
Dangerous Liaisons (n’est pas?) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialogue-centric-films/356581/26 "2006-05-16T13:14:26Z")
Well, my favorite, **A Man for All Seasons** has been taken already, so I’ll have to add **My Dinner with Andre** and the **Tao of Physics** -based [B[Mindwalk\*\*. (I don’t agree with Fritjof Capra’s mysticism-as-quantum-mechanics thesis, but it’s interesting to see Sam Waterston arguing physics instead of the Law): [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100151/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100151/) ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialogue-centric-films/356581/27 "2006-05-16T17:38:16Z")
**Proof** recently. . .which was a play first, so no surprise. See **Wit**. **Wit** was an HBO movie, also based on a play if I’m not mistaken and really really good. Heartbreaking. Great performance by Emma Thomson. ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialogue-centric-films/356581/28 "2006-05-16T18:01:03Z")
While not technically “dialogues,” there are the two great (late) Spalding Gray monologues - _Monster in a Box_ and _Swimming to Cambodia_. ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialogue-centric-films/356581/29 "2006-05-16T18:18:19Z")
[QUOTE=Ol’Gaffer] While not technically “dialogues,” there are the two great (late) Spalding Gray monologues - _Monster in a Box_ and _Swimming to Cambodia_. [/QUOTE] Oh yeah–excellent! Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialogue-centric-films/356581/30 "2006-05-16T20:54:57Z")
I miss Spalding Gray. Sigh… Sad story. It seems every Jim Jarmusch film. Especially Coffee and Cigarettes. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialogue-centric-films/356581/31 "2006-05-16T22:18:32Z")
**Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead** ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialogue-centric-films/356581/32 "2006-05-16T23:24:03Z")
[QUOTE=Case Sensitive] **Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead** [/QUOTE] Are you sure that fits? ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialogue-centric-films/356581/33 "2006-05-17T01:59:55Z")
[QUOTE=flight] Are you sure that fits? [/QUOTE] Sure. Subtract the conversations - and the Question Game - between Tim Roth and Gary Oldman, and what’s left? ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialogue-centric-films/356581/34 "2006-05-17T02:31:50Z")
[QUOTE=Case Sensitive] Sure [/QUOTE] Statement. 15/love. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialogue-centric-films/356581/35 "2006-05-17T04:49:13Z")
[QUOTE=flight] Statement. 15/love. [/QUOTE] Heh. Been a while since I’ve sen it. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialogue-centric-films/356581/36 "2006-05-17T05:18:44Z")
[QUOTE=Case Sensitive] Heh. Been a while since I’ve sen it. [/QUOTE] Are you not getting this? ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialogue-centric-films/356581/37 "2006-05-17T05:51:16Z")
Damn, I clicked on this thread with _Clerks_ in mind, and it’s the first one the OP mentions. I got nothin’. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialogue-centric-films/356581/38 "2006-05-17T11:41:02Z")
[QUOTE=garygnu] Are you not getting this? [/QUOTE] Why are you pestering him? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dialogue-centric-films/356581.md?page=1)